Ramanathapuram: Across the political spectrum, leaders of various parties on Monday paid floral tributes and homage at the memorial of the late freedom fighter, nationalist and spiritual leader, Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar in Pasumpon village in Ramanathapuram district to mark his 110th birth anniversary and 55th 'Guru Pooja', amid his birth and death anniversaries uniquely falling on the same day. The three-day 'Thevar Jayanthi' and 'Guru Pooja' ceremonies that began on October 28 with the 'Aanmiga Vizha', culminated today, with thousands of people from across Tamil Nadu flocking to Pasumpon to remember the veteran leader on the occasion.
The homage to the gold 'kavacham' adorned splendid statue of Pasumpon Thevar at the memorial, was led by the Chief Minister, Mr. Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. O. Pannerselvam, on behalf of the ruling AIADMK party. Other senior party leaders, ministers, MPs' and MLAs' including Dindigul Sreenivasan, O. S. Manian, Ramanathapuram MP, Anwar Raja, and others joined them. Former Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa had donated the 'golden Kavacham' for the statue of Pasumpon Thevar.
While the DMK contingent was led by its working president, M. K. Stalin and included former ministers, I. Periyasamy, Muthu Karuppan, Suba Thangavelan, former MP Ms. Bhavani Rajendran among others, other important state leaders to pay homage at the memorial included the TNCC president, Su. Thirunavukkarasar, TMC president G K Vasan, MDMK leader Vaiko, PMK president, G.K. Mani and senior BJP leader, H Raja. On behalf of the AIADMK (Amma) faction, its deputy general secretary, T T V Dhinakaran, paid homage at the Thevar memorial.
A government function to recall the services of Pasumpon Thevar was organised in the evening to mark the occasion. Over 5,000 police personnel were drafted for security duty on all the three days to ensure that the events passed off peacefully. Floral tributes were also paid to the statue of Pasumpon Thevar on railway feeder road in Rameswaram.
